Carol Vogel‘s column keeps score for Gagosian marking the sale of four Andreas Gursky works to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art:

This spring the Gagosian Gallery celebrated the opening of its expanded Los Angeles space with a new series of work by the German artist Andreas Gursky. Filling the walls of the white-walled room were five photographs of the ocean, measuring about 8 feet by 11 feet apiece. Each is an image of endless rich, blue water edged by coastlines and punctuated with islands. […]

“They were as sublime as the Rothko Chapel,” Michael Govan, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, said, referring to the Houston landmark. “They are also satellite photography, which is a breakthrough for the artist.”

Mr. Govan was so taken with the suite of works that he persuaded two trustees — Steven F. Roth, executive vice president of the World Oil Corporation, a family-owned company in Los Angeles, and another trustee who wants to remain anonymous — to buy four of them for the museum. Mr. Govan declined to say what they paid. The gallery was asking $680,000 each.

Inside Art: The Ocean Blue as Art Abstract (New York Times)